Passed RHCSA & RHCE Exam with Good Marks

This New year 2014 would have not have been better for me as on 2nd January 2014 I got a gift from Red hat and that in the form of Red hat certification results. I got an email from the Red hat team that I have earned mine EX200 & EX300 Certification and my certificates were also attached with the mail. I scored 90% marks in both the exams and cleared my RHCSA & RHCE exam in first attempt only.

I gave both my RHCSA & RHCE exam on 31st December 2013 on the gap 1 hour and being truthful, I have opted for a double attempt for safe side and single exam cost more. Don’t think that It ruined my New year party as my exam was on 31st December. After my exam I partied all night as from past 1 month I was busy studying for a Red hat exam on my extra time. 🙂

RHCSA & RHCE Exam Fees

In India I think Red hat exam fees are low as compared to other countries. I paid a total of Rs.22,500 with taxes. For RHCSA and RHCE exam fees are Rs.10,000 each and rest is tax.

You can check the latest fees detail of the Red hat exam at an Official Red hat site too.

My Preparation for RHCSA & RHCE Exam

I started taking a weekend class from April 2013 from one of the local institute in our area and was able to complete my course around October. You must be thinking why it took 7 months to complete a 3 month course?

First of all I was taking weekend classes so I was getting only 2 days in a week to learn Linux, secondly due to some of my classmates, which have a habit of coming late into the classroom, make my 2 hour class to only 1:30 her class, and last but not the least I have a very old habit of bunking classes from my Engineering days. 🙂

Now I am sure you know why it took too long to complete my course, so don’t ask again in your comments.

I will advise you to consider this book for your study too, as this book is easy to understand and there are lots of questions after every chapter to give you a good understanding and also helps from interview point of view.

Tips for RHCSA & RHCE

1. Practice, Practice, Practice!!: I will request you to practice for all the topics given in the Red hat official syllabus for RHCSA and RHCE. Even after doing lots of practice, I missed one command and was not able to score 100%. Practice more for LVM, HTTP, SCSI, kernel upgrade, etc. These are very good topic to learn for your career and organization point of view.

2. Read every question properly and use the same naming convention as given on the exam.

3. Use either IP tables or TCP wrapper in exam. You can use either. Use whatever you are compatible with.

4. Reboot your system wherever necessary and manage time carefully.

5. Last but not the least, don’t panic and give your exam confidently.

Hope this help in your RHCSA & RHCE exam. Please don’t ask any question in the comments which I have faced in the exam as I will not be able to give answers for it. I have signed Non disclosure agreement (NDA) with Red hat. You can ask any topic of syllabus if you are having any confusion, I can help with that. Good luck for your Red hat exam.

binu jacob

Every experience person is once fresher, so don’t worry. Keep searching and give off-campus interview.

October 10, 2014

Jatin sharma

Hi Pawan,

I would like to know If I have cleared RHCE certification then Can I get easy Job in Red Hat / some wherelse where using these certification can help me to make my future bright.
As per the Red Hat policy If am not cleared the RHCSA then I can’t give RHCE Exam.So My total money will waste. So is it better First I clear RHCSA then RHCE.
Currently I have done MCA doing job as software testing.

There is no such think like Easy Job. If you do Red hat certification then chances are better and recruiters are searching for people having certification.

Its correct that if you do not clear your RHCSA exam then RHCE certification does not count. But you can re give your RHCSA exam and can make your RHCE count.

October 4, 2014

Bharath

Hi,

I want to study Linux . I came to know RHEL 7 is released, what is exact diff bet RHEL 6 and RHEL 7. The books which you have mentioned are enough for RHCSA exam with RHEL 7? I am confused about RHEL 6 and 7. Please clarify. Some ppl who passed RHCSA said bcoz RHEL 7 is released they have to take RHCSA exam again.

There are many difference in both and RHEL 7 is major release. Please check official Red hat website for all the major changes. You can take any exam. Each certification is valid for 3 years. So even after RHEL 7, your RHEL 6 certification is valid.

October 1, 2014

BHUVNESH KUMAR

(” i have a read all this comments regarding RHCE you have provide very valuable information “)

i am also interested to Crack RHCE certification

i am basically from punjab . i am finding a good institute from many days. one of online friend from delhi suggest my that RHEL 7 is new version and he also suggest me “CMS Institute of Pritampura ”

can you know about that institute or if can you give me any other which provide quality of perperation .( duration +fee+timing)

Prem Anand

You can search videos on YouTube topic wise. Both are good, just practice to get cleared in EXAM. Good luck.

September 26, 2014

harish desai

Hi Pawan,

I am writing RHCSA. As you said i can either use iptables ot tcp wrappers. But During exam if i leave this part and complete all other parts can i pass the RHCSA? I don’t want to touch the iptables or tcp rappers part as its very sensitive.

So can i pass exam if i leave this part and complete others?
And will SeLinux will be part of RHCSA, please help me to know these.

yum install httpd* : It will install all the packages which start with httpd like httpd-2.2.15-29.el6_4.x86_64 and httpd-tools-2.2.15-29.el6_4.x86_64 and their related dependencies.

Same is true Vice-Versa

Hope that helps.

September 18, 2014

Murali B

Hi I want to write RHCSA exam and I know only basic linux commands .
Can you guide me how to crack the
exam. WHAT EVR D SUGGTIONS U LL PROVIDE I’M READY TO FOLLOW BUT I HAVE TO COMPLETE CERTIFICATION ASAP .

If you know only basic linux commands and want to appear for RHCE, then you will have to work very hard. Get syllabus from Red hat website and start preparing topic wise. You can take reference from books mentioned above.

September 16, 2014

tanmaya

sir i have a question for you that i am using debian for last 2 years.i have started with that. I want to prepare for certification. Is there any certification for debian user. If not should i switch to red hat based for rhce?? I have problem to buy rhel. Can i use cent os or fedora for that. Which will you refer?

Sorry Tanmaya, I don’t have idea about Debian certification. If you want to prepare for RHEL certifications, you can download CentOS, it is free to download and can do practice. It is exactly equal to Red hat linux.

September 5, 2014

Chidambaram

Hi Pawan,

I have just started to enqiure about training institutes rhcsa/rhce. The training institute that I approached offers RHEL version 6 and told me that version 7 is due in October.

If I get trained in version 6, will I be able to do the certification in version 7 as well ?

Yes, there is no restriction, you can do certification in RHEL 6 and 7 too (when it comes).

September 2, 2014

Rohit K

Hello Pawan,

I have one question that I am beginner in linux means I know some commands and little about shell script. Now I want to do certification so please guide me how I prepare myself to achieve it. Means from where I start and how as I read above comments thers are practical queation in exams . So please let me know as your suggestion will be valuable to me..

You can start with books mentioned above. Yes in RHCSA and RHCE exam you get Linux client machine to do practical. This is full practical exam not objective type. Good luck for your preparation.

August 27, 2014

Tarun

Hi Pawan,

I am from DB admin background , however I have a plan to appeared rhcsa and rhce exams in coming months. Can I disable both firewall and SElinux in exam machines? Then it will be easy to establish the connection between server and client ? OR is there any question where we need to enforce the SElinux and enable the firewall ?

You can give your exam with firewall turned off. Why you want to disable SElinux ? There are option to configure it.

August 25, 2014

Tarun

Hi Pawan,

Thank you for coming back. I have another question. How many linux machines they will provide in exam ? Or I need to install Linux and then create VMs(KVM) ? Can you please clarify on this? Example ,if I need to configure NFS client , would the provide the login user/pass for NFS server also OR just they will provide the server detail like name , IP and shared directory etc ? Can you please help to provide the detail information of exam vms?

Tarun you will get only one physical machine and you will get KVM installed i.e you have 1 virtual linux system in which you will work. Your machine will be client machine and you don’t have to do server side setup. You will get all the details don’t worry.

August 27, 2014

Prakash

Hi,

I studied Linux and worked on Linux but very short time as I got opportunity to work on different platform. Its been more than 5yrs I hardly logged in and run Linux commands. Now I want to learn my favorite OS Linux.

Confused whether I should directly join RHCSA course or should I do basic Linux course then prepare RHCSA & RHCE.

Hi, I had lot of confusions in choosing my career and finally decided to go with Linux system administration but even now i am confused whether to go with system admin or with networking.If it is system admin then I ll go for Linux only. Does freshers who clear rhcsa get job or we need experience?I am very much worried about my future and choosing a course.Please do help me.

See in any field, you will need experience. Freshers has less chance of getting into the Linux Admin job in big MNC’s. I would suggest you to start with small firm, learn there and after getting good practical knowledge switch to MNC. This is just the advice. There are chances where fresher can also get the job.

Go to some fresher off campus drive.

August 13, 2014

Rijul

Thanks Pawan for your advice. But I have another question, is there any difference between rhel 6 & 7 ? as I am practicing in rhel 6 from my Red Hat Linux 7 book. And I am using vmware workstation 10 to run rhel 6. Is that fine ???

Rijul

Sorry to say but I haven’t gone through that book. Though there are not much difference in Red hat 7, you can match syllabus content from Red hat website. You can also follow books mentioned in this post.

July 29, 2014

JT

I failed in RHCE. I don’t know what mistake I did. I thought I would score 100% because I got all the output. I did struggle in samba, but after trial and error I got it. I am very disappointed. I have to get through in my 2nd attempt. Most of the questions are common for rhce. if I could get the exact commands u used for the exam, it wuold be of great help

Cannot share question as I have signed NDA agreement with Red hat. If any one share there questions and they came to know they can cancel his/her certification.

July 26, 2014

bipin

Hi,
Right now I am undergoing coaching in ccna,mcsa and rhce. And would like to obtain rhce certificate. But some are saying the exams of rhce is very diffiult. I would like to know which certificate is better mcsa or rhce?
Thanks

I would rather suggest you to take exam one by one. For RHCE you also need RHCSA certification. RHCE certificate is not difficult but need practice and study.

July 19, 2014

Rainer Deer

I was following the step-by-step instructions on the Lab exercises (Chapter 2) of Hands-on Guide to the Red Hat® Exams by Damian Tommasino but never progressed beyond Lab1.

As a newbie in Linux, I wanted to follow a book to the letter but Damian’s instructions do not appear on my panels.

I guess the problem in appearance might be the versions of both the Virtualbox and RHEL. I’m using VirtualBox-4.3.12-93733-Win with Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.12-93733 and of course RHEL 6.3.

Pawan, I know you have mastered the book of Damian, so could you help me know the correct versions used in the book so I could reinstall my Labs and continue following the instructions in the book to the letter?
I wish the rest of the Linux Gurus in this blog could also help me on this problem.

Thanks in advance to everyone!
(By the way, I’m from the Philippines).

I am using VMware workstation and you can gets its trial version from their official website. I am running Linux kernel version 2.6.32.. el6 and able to perform all the chapters. Chapter 2 is just for letting you know Linux process and few commands, you should not have any problem.

Try running your RHEL 6.3 using VMware. Let me know if you still face any problem.

July 1, 2014

Rainer Deer

Hi Pawan,

Thanks for taking the time to help me in this self-study project. I have downloaded RHEL 6.0 lately and would try to use this for the meantime as RHEL 6.3 seemed to falter a bit. I am still using Virtualbox but would try VMWare next as you suggested. Hopefully, I could get through the succeeding stages smoothly.

akshay

RHCSA and RHCE syllabus is given in Redhat website and links are provided above.

June 24, 2014

rohit

Hello,

I took RHCE exam after preparing for 6 months and failed with score zero, yes zero. I did my exam very well and I just missed only one question and I’m very sure that other than one question , I got the right o/p for rest of the question, as I tested each and every o/p from VM and physical machine. One big thing I missed to check was by rebooting the vm. I did not had time to check by rebooting the VM. And I believe something got screwed because of that system did not come up after reboot.

After getting the result I tried with all the questions I remember from rhce exam at home lab and for none of the questions/scenario , system start-up was not screwed up. Not able to recreate the same scenario.

I will be re-taking the exam in next available slot and definitely this time I will be practicing each and every config by rebooting and not sure If I will be able to recreate the same scenario during my practice like screwing up system-start-up.

I may not be able to discuss any specific questions and answers here. What I’m loking for is which services or commands could have screwed up the start-up of my exam vm. I’m looking for answers like – fdisk /dd / mount /fdisk/iscsi/iptables/selinux.

Is there any other non-technical reason this would have happen ?
Do you think the non RHCE questions , like the questions which we fill before the exam starts ?
I was working till the moment 00:00 Mins left , Can this be a problem ?

You have done a big mistake by not rebooting your VM machine. On questions which requires permanent change in configuration, you should always reboot your VM after each question.

And did you used TCP wrappers or IP tables ?

And the starting information should also be correct but if you have received you result in your email, then I hope the information is correct.

June 23, 2014

rohit

Yes I agree about my mistake and overconfidence. I configured everything with IPtables.
I just want to know the clue before retaking RHCE. I need some sort of clue which conf. could have screwed up the vm.

projectfack

Hi , I just wanted to know if the training is mandatory to take the exam ,as here in Australia it says it is $715(which is Rs40k ,i know it sounds crazy and it is just for RHCSA Exam ,RHCE not included) including training (1/2 day official red hat training at red hat headquarters ) which has to be taken along with the certification.Is training mandatory in India,because if it is not i would rather take it in India(I am from Bangalore currently studying in Australia).

In India training is not mandatory and you can take RHCSA and RHCE exam in 25k including taxes.

June 18, 2014

projectfack

Ah ok thats great Thanks for the reply

June 18, 2014

kamal

i am trying to take Rhcsa and Rhce certifications , i have already took coaching at local institute. i have purchased 3 books of michael chang and do have coaching material. my question is, how do i prepare for the exam on a single system

If you have already taken training from local institute then they must have already given preparation for exam. You need to practice some sample papers and mock test for qualifying exam of RHCSA and RHCE.

It’s good decision that you want to do Redhat certification. First of all you can’t take RHCE exam until you have passed RHCSA exam. So if you are planning for single certification at one time go for RHCSA.

Giving single exam is quite a expensive process. Single exam may cost you around Rs.12,500 with taxes. Please check the books which I have referred for self training. They are good for Redhat exams. This Exam is a live performance based exam, so no multiple choice questions.

If you practice hard you would definitely clear the Redhat certifications. Good Luck.

April 6, 2014

LaPist0la

Hello;

From what I understand you can TAKE the RHCE exam, but you will not obtain your RHCE certification. You need to take your RHCSA exam first, then after you pass and obtain your RHCSA, if you sit your RHCE exam, you will obtain the RHCE only if you pass.